Hampered by foot soreness, LaVine to miss week

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine will be sidelined for one week with right foot soreness, the team announced Friday morning.

LaVine missed Chicago’s 120-113 overtime victory against the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday with the injury, which also sidelined him from a game last week against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He exited Tuesday’s blowout loss to the Boston Celtics early after scoring just two points.

A two-time All-Star, LaVine has struggled to find a rhythm through his first 18 games this season, averaging 21 points on 44.3% shooting, his lowest numbers since 2017-18, when he was coming off ACL surgery.

The Bulls on Thursday were also without DeMar DeRozan, who sat out with a sprained left ankle. Yet Chicago snapped a five-game losing streak in one of the team’s most inspired efforts of a 6-14 season.

Bulls center Nikola Vucevic disputed the connection between the absences of LaVine and DeRozan and one of the team’s most cohesive wins of the season.

“That has nothing to do with it,” Vucevic said after Thursday’s game. “We just came together. We knew we had to show better spirit; we came back home with our fans behind us; and we just wanted to play well. It’s one game. Those are our two best players. We need them. If we want to achieve anything big, we need them.”